Communicable Disease

The Board of Education recognizes that control of the spread of communicable disease is essential to the well-being of the school community and to the efficient operation of the schools.

The Board shall be bound by the statutes and by rules of the State Board of Education for the exclusion and readmission of pupils who have contracted a communicable disease and of teachers and pupils who have been exposed to a communicable disease and for the instruction of teachers in health and the prevention of disease. The Board shall comply with regulations of the New Jersey Department of Health and the Gloucester Board of Health governing the prevention, control, and reporting of communicable disease.

The teacher may exclude from the classroom and the Principal may exclude from the school building any pupil who appears to be ill or has been exposed to a communicable disease. A pupil may be isolated in school to await the arrival of or instructions from an adult member of his/her family. If the school medical inspector or the school nurse is present in the building, his/her recommendation shall be sought before any such exclusion or isolation is ordered.

Any pupil retained at home or excluded from school by reason of having or being suspected of having a communicable disease shall not be readmitted to his/her classroom until he/she presents written evidence of being free of communicable disease. That evidence may be supplied by the school medical inspector or another qualified physician who has examined the pupil.

Any pupil or adult who has weeping skin lesions that cannot be covered shall be excluded from school.

The Superintendent shall develop procedures for the control of communicable disease that include the instruction of teaching staff members in the detection of disease and measures for its prevention and control; the removal from school premises to the care of a responsible adult for pupils identified and excluded in accordance with this policy; the preparation of standards for the readmission of pupils who have recovered from communicable disease; the provision of appropriate home instruction to excluded pupils in accordance with law; and the filing of reports as required by law.